Game Village - Optimised campaigns produce 22% increase in click through rates
GameVillage is one of the fastest growing bingo operators in the UK. It offers the chance for members of the community to have their own 'home' on one of the 'Village streets' and take part in promotions where they can win cash and prizes.
“Our strong community experience and generous rewards systems are our major USPs for players,” explains Luke Creigh, GameVillage Partnership Manager. “We also run a media operation, called Game Revenue, which allows other UK Bingo operators to present offers through email marketing to our database.”
As part of Game Revenue, GameVillage sends its 'Friends of GameVillage' a weekly email advertising the latest, greatest offers from other Bingo operators. It's a clever way of offering something valuable to the GameVillage audience while making the use of a precious data asset.
Luke comments: “When we switched to Pure360 it opened our eyes to some of the stuff we could be doing to improve our results. We immediately found the email marketing software easier to use and it gave us the opportunity to do more. We started taking our email activities a lot more seriously.”
Optimising campaigns
Pure360 helped GameVillage develop their designs and content to optimum effect. This involved placing links in areas most likely to be noticed, reducing the graphics-to-text ratio (too many graphics can be detrimental to deliverability) and using intelligent time sending to deliver the email advertising mailers at key times of the day.
GameVillage used PureResponses's subject line selector to test which lines were most effective. “We found shorter, punchier lines with some personalisation were the most effective,” explains Luke. “Pure360 also advised us to remove spammy keywords like 'cash' and 'free' from our email marketing.”
In addition they carried out 'trust building' exercises, to prevent emails being spammed or junked, including a header making it very clear to customers where the email advertising was coming from. This was particularly important for an e-shot that was promoting exterior Bingo networks to GameVillage customers.
Making a difference
With an optimised campaign and the ability to track and analyse a range of results, GameVillage quickly saw the rewards they'd been looking for.
“There has been a 22% increase in our click-through rates as a result of the advice we've been given and the modules we've used,' says Luke. 'And there's plenty of scope for us to do more with our email marketing. In future we'll be looking at making full use of the dynamic aspects of Pure360's email marketing software so we can send out personalised birthday offers to our community.”
“The advice we were given has been a real eye opener. It's taught us a lot about the importance of email marketing within our overall marketing strategy.”
